It has been a breakout year for sprint car racer Tim Estenson, who has steadily climbed the ropes in short-track racing.
“My dad and then my uncle, the owner of my stuff, they ran the big motorcycle stuff,” Estenson said. “My dad was a big car guy, too. When I came around, he took me to a bunch of local races. I got the hook. He got me a go-kart the next year. I started practicing when I was 6 years old and fully started when I was 7. It took off from there.
“I did that for seven years. My last year of karts I also ran a Legend Car, which was 2015. I did that to 2018. My last year of Legends I did a lightning sprint. Over the winter of 2018-’19, my uncle got an opportunity and put together a deal with D.J. Netto (in California). We did eight to 10 races to get some laps under my belt. In the winter, my uncle got me two cars, a trailer, everything ready to go. He said, ‘Go have fun with it and figure it out.’
“In 2020, we stuck to home. The second year we started traveling more and doing some Outlaws stuff here and there,” Estenson added. “Last year was a fluke year. I tried something different with a different guy and it was mostly Knoxville (Raceway). That just didn’t end up working out. This year is by far my favorite year.”
The North Dakota native brought on sprint car racing veteran Jack Dover, who has earned more than 150 sprint car victories during a career that spans back to 2005, as the crew chief. Dover has mostly been his own crew chief for the last 15 years, but this is his first experience as a full-time crew chief for someone else.
“I’m learning Jack’s ways because he’s been doing it for a while,” Estenson said. “He’s super-smart, driving-wise and wrench-wise.
“I love it. Sometimes I feel bad taking nights away from him racing because he still is a really strong competitor. I know he still has the drive and passion. He enjoys doing it with me and we’re having fun.”
As of mid-July, the 21-year-old Estenson had earned a trio of feature triumphs in a winged sprint car – two in the 360 division and one in the 410 division. He entered the year without a single sprint car feature victory.
“I believe Tim has the talent to go pretty far and I want to be part of it,” said Dover, whose new challenge came with one major stipulation.
“I don’t want to full-on quit, retire or take a year off,” he explained. “They understood why I wanted to do it that way and we’ve made it work.”
Halfway through the season, Dover had a dozen starts in three sprint car divisions among four different car owners. He’d earned a podium finish during each of his four 360 sprint car starts and he posted a podium while driving for Tim Estenson Motorsports — one of a pair of races behind the wheel of the No. 14t entry in an effort to improve the race car.
“I jumped in the car (at Huset’s Speedway on July 9) because I have a little more experience to see if I’m feeling the same thing he has been,” Dover said. “In hot laps and qualifying, I felt what he was talking about. We changed some stuff and got better for the heat race. We changed a little more for the feature and seemed to get better each time we went out.
“I wanted to jump in at Belleville (High Banks on July 3) to see how the car would react, but that’s not the best place to feel it out because it’s a mash the gas type of track. At Huset’s or any other track that’s more technical you can really feel what the car is doing. Not many crew chiefs out there can climb in and be competitive so that’s an advantage as we’re trying to get the car somewhere close to what I think is right for Tim.”
The partnership has been successful and emerged out of a friendship that developed a few years earlier.
“My dad was up in Fargo working during the winter for two months straight,” Dover recalled. “He went to the auction and was looking for a car. Tim’s dad was working at the auction at the time. He gave my dad a ride around the parking lot and they started talking. About a year later, we went to Hartford in South Dakota. We parked beside them and come to find out that’s who my dad was talking to. Ever since then we’ve been friends. Jokingly, we talked about doing something together last year and then this winter we made a deal work out.”
Dover’s advice as a competitor was the spark that ignited the friendship.